LES LALANNE

KASMIN GALLERY

New York | 2017

Les Lalanne featured twenty-five works by the pioneering French sculptors Claude and Francois-Xavier Lalanne, taking over two rooms of the gallery highlighting the contrasts between light and shadow; airiness and heft. The sculptors’ works are segregated between a light and dark room. The light room features Claude Lalanne’s explorations in sculptural furniture, inspired by—and including fragments of—flora. The dark room—a luscious blue, including carpeting—homes François-Xavier’s heavier bronze sculptures, inspired by fauna. Exceptions prevail—Claude utilizes crocodile skins in her work and François-Xavier’s sculptures include a realistically colored, comically oversized apple. The light room is divided into two viewing spaces by a theatrical scrim, rescaling the gallery to better accommodate the works on display while maintaining a breezy atmosphere. The delicacy of the scrim finds company in Claude’s ephemeral materials—flowers, scales, branches. Meanwhile, the deep blue of the ‘dark room’ has an effect of brightening François-Xavier’s bronze works.